SHINE: Digitization of 27 Years of Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) Films and Application in Statistical Study of Filaments and Flares

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From 1969 to 1995, Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) staff recorded all of their observations on 35 mm film before switching to digital imaging after 1995. These film data include full-disk observations from BBSO's 8 inch telescope and high resolution observations from the 10 and 26 inch telescopes, with the cadence of observations ranging from 10 seconds to 1 minute. These film data cover two and one-half solar cycles, include thousands of flares, and span the entire operational service of several space missions, including SMM, CGRO, and Yohkoh. Wide public access to these BBSO data films is impractical and their scientific capability has never been fully explored. The requested funding will support the purchase of specialized commercial digitizing equipment, as well as the employment of a postdoctoral researcher and undergraduate students to digitize these films and archive them in the public domain. The BBSO data to be digitized includes full-disk and high resolution H-alpha images, as well as He I images. The entire set of full-disk data will be converted to create a synoptic data base. High resolution film data will be digitized according to events selected by the full-disk data. All observed solar flares and filament eruptions will be automatically detected and cataloged using artificial intelligence methods that have been developed and implemented at BBSO. Despite some limitations of the film data format, the PI notes that the long-term coverage and high quality of the BBSO data will have very broad applications for many statistical studies. The PI's team will carry out targeted research on the filaments and flares with the digitized data. They plan to perform statistical analysis of solar filaments, including their motions and eruptions. They will study filament oscillations to verify whether they are precursors to, or the result of, solar flares. The PI and postdoc will investigate the rate of magnetic reconnection at the Sun and the relationship of filament acceleration to hard X-ray (HXR) emission. This new study will complement the ongoing comparison of existing BBSO digital data and HXR data from the RHESSI spacecraft.This research addresses the SHINE goal of understanding the initiation of CMEs and electron acceleration in flares. The study of a large number of archived events will improve the forecasting of future solar eruptive events, and thus assist operational space weather prediction. Funding is not requested for the PI, but it will instead support the postdoc and undergraduate students. At least three undergraduate students will participate in the film digitization and research, and the postdoc will gain management training by assisting the PI in supervising these students.